Foursquare Gets A New York Times Profile

Foursquare, the iPhone app for people who want to tell
their friends where they are, got a big sweet smooch from the
New York Times this morning, courtesy of Jenna
Wortham.

The featurette starts by comparing Foursquare favorably to
Twitter and Facebook, two social networks which dwarf the
startup's userbase in size.

But the article posits Foursquare's tiny size is part of its
appeal. Like a hot indie band or a new restaurant in the
neighborhood, Foursquare is cool because no one uses it yet.

Just seven months old with about 60,000 users so far, Foursquare
is still getting off the ground — especially when compared with
supersize services like Facebook and Twitter, which have millions
of members. But that underground status is part of Foursquare’s
appeal, its fans say. It is not yet cluttered with celebrities,
nosy mothers-in-law or annoying co-workers.

“On Twitter, there are more than 3,000 people that follow me, and
Facebook is more of a business community now,” said Annie
Heckenberger, 36, who works at an advertising agency in
Philadelphia. “Foursquare is more of the people that I actually
hang out with and want to socialize with.”

It is akin to knowing about a hip new club before everyone else,
said Deborah Schultz, an analyst with the Altimeter Group who
specializes in trends in social media.

“There will always be people who love new technology and want to
test it out, kick the tires,” she said. “Once those services
become too big and the bridge-and-tunnel crowd shows up, they can
lose some of that initial interest.”